Chapter 18.1
The civilian attack on Yin Mingzheng pa.s.sed without further commotion.
According to the rules of the base, he was taken away by the law enforcement team and sentenced after being convicted.
These days, if you commit a crime, you wouldn’t be put in prison to eat and drink as you wish. Those that committed serious offences were outright executed. Others were sent to serve in the army to do the backbreaking labour that other people didn’t want to do.
Yin Mingzheng didn’t care anymore, but Shi Qing joined forces with Le Youyuan to fight against those who spread the rumors around the base.
Did they say Yin Mingzheng was ama.s.sing power?
He sacrificed himself for millions of people ah.
Did they say Yin Mingzheng was arrogant?
He sacrificed himself for millions of people ah.
Wasn’t this excuse as useful as the Navy?
Little Shi Qing who had been ‘led astray’ by Le Youyuan played around happily.
Anyway, no matter what was said, the fact that Yin Mingzheng was willing to sacrifice himself to save civilians was absolutely certain. Countless people bore witness to the event.
This was the greatest shield the hero of humanity possessed.
The one who secretly plotted against him had made a giant miscalculation. Public opinion was the last thing that could be used to undermine him.
The criminal mastermind, General Zhao, felt like he was about to kneel over in anger.
He sent people to spread rumours that Yin Mingzheng allowed his little lover to steal and look down on the common people, but no one believed them.
The people who were sent were also glared at and scolded by the civilians for a long time.
It was true that young master Shi Qing doesn’t give money, but he’s willing to offer his rare healing abilities in return. If Shi Qing took a fancy to a trinket in someone’s family, they would all be happy enough to jump high into the sky.
Only fools would let Shi Qing pay in cash.
When he sent people to spread how Yin Mingzheng was power-hungry, everyone brought up the time that Yin Mingzheng sacrificed his life for the common people.
General Zhao hated it all so much, but he couldn’t think of a suitable reply.
In order to cover up the fact that they set up Yin Mingzheng, they did make him a hero.
Looking at the fierce alien warship back then, it seemed like there was a 99.99% chance Yin Mingzheng wouldn’t be able to return.
They didn’t care about giving honour to a dead man.
But who could’ve known…….
Yin Mingzheng actually came back!
He really hit the jackpot.
Now, the person they tried so hard to suppress was wreathed in the honour that they personally adorned him with.
So much regret ah!!
So much hate ah!!
General Zhao wanted to roar at the civilians who worshipped Yin Mingzheng in the base:
Do you think he really willingly sacrificed himself!!!
No!!!
Yin Mingzheng was ambushed and sent over by us!!!
We did it all!!!
You should be thankful, praising and appreciative towards us ah!!!
In the end, he could only think about such things in his heart. If he really told everyone that he ordered people to attack Yin Mingzheng and throw him off the plane, the civilians who followed Yin Mingzheng would probably come after him.
No, there’s no need to wait for them to bite, he would be killed by Yin Mingzheng himself first.
General Zhao was afraid of death.
Otherwise, he would not always hide in the shadows and employ unscrupulous methods like using his daughter to seduce Yin Mingzheng.
He was different from the other generals of the same rank.
The others considered the overall situation first before their various schemes. They would make detailed adjustments to their plans as needed. General Zhao, on the other hand, was willing to abandon everything in the pursuit of his goals.
Seeing Yin Mingzheng rise step by step to power made General Zhao become more and more disorderly.
He couldn’t help it.
He has done plenty of underhanded things before, but it was alright because there was no one with a higher position than him. If Yin Mingzheng really gained control, he would definitely expose General Zhao’s wrongdoings sooner or later.
In the base, there were only four generals at the same level as Yin Mingzheng, including General Zhao. After the Insects invaded, the former president died for his country. At that time, the four generals each had their own plans and the situation became messy. They were not satisfied with each other. Moreover, they had almost the same quality of subordinates. In the end, they decided to manage the base together while furthering their own interests.
Yin Mingzheng was the only general who had no troops. He was also the most powerful of the five.
The power of ability users were enough to shock the majority of individuals. Although Yin Mingzheng has never used his power to deal with humans, many people have seen how he dealt with the Insects.
The most famous battle of the hero of humanity involved him annihilating thousands of Insects with one hand.
The Insect race had collectively retreated 10,000 kilometers out of fear.
It was only thanks to this move of his that humanity had a chance to breathe and gather in the bases. There, they studied the high-tech weapons left by the Insects on the battlefield, and applied what they learned to their own weapons.
Other than being a skilled fighter, Yin Mingzheng also had a talent for developing new weapons.
Take the tranquilizer from before for example.
He was like an invincible G.o.d of war. His image was forever burned into the hearts of the surviving civilians.
Everyone believed that, as long as Yin Mingzheng willed it, the common people who regarded him as a deity wouldn’t hesitate to elevate him to the throne.
It was just a matter of time. The civilians who had no way of retaliating against the invaders needed an icon of hope.
There was a time when General Zhao wanted to fight for the position of the president, but he realised that, whether it was his subordinates, scientists, martial ability or spy network, he was inferior to the other person in every way. The other three generals were dismissive of him as well, so there was no chance of forming an alliance with them.
So he felt pretty sorry for himself.
You can’t blame him for being underhanded. Yin Mingzheng was so selfless that he would’ve went anyway. He just made a move earlier than him and saved millions of lives in the process. General Zhao should be praised as a hero.
Unfortunately, General Zhao could try to fool himself, but he really didn’t feel too good about it.
He had a very clear understanding of the situation.
When Yin Mingzheng ascended to the highest position, the first one to die would be him.
In order to prevent this from happening, he specifically asked his daughter to seduce Yin Mingzheng to try and become in-laws with him.
But Zhao Miaomiao turned out to be a total disappointment and a waste of her pretty looks.
If the carrot didn’t work, then he could only bring out the stick.
However, nothing he tried succeeded. Yin Mingzheng was still fine and peachy.
His efforts against Yin Mingzheng had backfired. Not only did the hero of humanity not fall, his support became even more entrenched.
What General Zhao saw wasn’t Yin Mingzheng’s upcoming ascension to the position of president, but his own impending doom.
He can only watch his hair fall out due to stress and desperately try to find a way out.
He also urged his daughter to be more concerned. At today’s meeting, he learned that the base’s presidential election was coming up. As soon as General Zhao came home, he broke into Zhao Miaomiao’s room and slammed his hands on the table. He shouted at his daughter who was applying make up:
“All you know is to put on make-up all the time! Our good days are about to come to an end. If we don’t think of a solution, the two of us might as well just wait for our deaths!”
Zhao Miaomiao had a short temper as well. She immediately threw her lipstick hard onto the floor. “I tried!! When that guy called Shi Qing went to Le Youyuan’s house before, I specifically gave them medicine to make them get together. But Yin Mingzheng insists on pretending to be blind and growing an entire prairie on his head. He still treats that Shi Qing like a treasure! When I walk in front of him, he acts like he doesn’t even see me. What else can I possibly do?!!”
“Even if there is no way you need to think of one!”
General Zhao slapped the table again. “If he doesn’t look at you, why can’t you go to see him? You were able to get that kind of medicine for Le Youyuan, so why don’t you use it on Yin Mingzheng? In the end, he is still a man. If a beautiful woman offers herself while he’s intoxicated, it’s basically a done deal already!”
He a.n.a.lyzed the situation according to his own experience as a man: “If you are lucky, you would have one in your stomach after. Yin Mingzheng’s little lover is a man, can he give him a baby?! When you say you don’t want anything but to give birth to the child in your belly, he would feel guilt towards you. We would be this child’s maternal relatives. In ancient times, we would be the uncle of the country! What would we be afraid of then?!”
Zhao Miaomiao felt like her father was getting carried away in his fantasies.
“Sober up, Dad. It’s Yin Mingzheng we’re talking about. There isn’t a single person that can beat him in the whole base. When he was dosed with sedatives and sent to that s.p.a.ceship br.i.m.m.i.n.g with aliens, he just escaped and came back. You’re asking me to drug a person like that?”
“Wait…”
She suddenly paused with a thoughtful looking expression: “Dad, how did Yin Mingzheng escape?”
“How am I supposed to know?! Do I look like the most powerful ability user to you?!!” General Zhao shouted angrily, “What’s the use of asking this when the person’s already back?!”
“No.”
Zhao Miaomiao frowned, “You saw what happened, Dad. There were enough aliens to blot out the sky, at least tens of millions of them. Each of them was equipped with weaponry that was leagues better than ours. Yin Mingzheng was even sedated beforehand, so he should have died for sure.”
The more she said it, the more it made sense to her: “Yin Mingzheng never mentioned how he escaped after he came back. The civilians in the base were too fooled by his powerful veneer to ask anything. But in a situation like that, even if he had three heads and six arms, he shouldn’t have been able to escape.”
General Zhao still didn’t understand what his daughter was saying all of a sudden. He was about to explode with anxiety.
“Can you think of something relevant to us? Can you?! ”
“Isn’t that what I’m doing right now?!!”
Zhao Miaomiao stood up in frustration, “Either we die or Yin Mingzheng dies. Since he’ll kill us after his promotion, we can’t let him get there.”
“How about this: find some people to spread news about Yin Mingzheng colluding with the aliens in the base. The main point should be that he couldn’t have escaped those aliens through his power alone.”
“The entire base regards Yin Mingzheng as an idol now. Who would believe anything we have to say? We might just be exposing a weakness to our opponents for nothing.” General Zhao ridiculed her whimsical thought process: “Don’t mess with Yin Mingzheng anymore.”
Zhao Miaomiao didn’t think her idea was impossible to pull off.
Her eyes were full of malice: “If they don’t believe it, we just have to show them the proof.”
She looked at General Zhao as she spoke: “Dad, we can’t be first in the base anyways. Maybe it’s time to move on.”
General Zhao was shocked: “Do you mean…”
“Yes.”
Zhao Miaomiao affirmed: “The Insect race.”
“The reason why the Insects haven’t been able to build a base these years was because of Yin Mingzheng. Right after he disappeared, the Insects immediately began to invade on all fronts. It was only after he came back that they retreated. Yin Mingzheng is like kryptonite to them. There are high-leveled Insects with human intelligence, right? If we show our willingness to deal with him together, surely they’ll cooperate with us?”
The words burrowed into the innermost part of General Zhao’s heart.
The Insects were so strong. It was only a matter of time before they took over Earth.
Rather than defending the base until the end, it was better to join the dark side.
When Earth is defeated, the Insects should treat humans that defected to them better than the rest, right?
He liked the idea more and more as he thought it over. In the end, General Zhao nodded:
“Alright, let’s do it.”